Silent Hill goes "Wii!": Shattered Memories (NOT AN APRIL FOOLS)

[ASandoval]

Psych profile spoilers ahead.

I'm weirded out by my girlfriend's game because She has every type of raw shock imaginable. I'm on my third playthrough, and I just get one type and it sticks with that. Watching her play, I've seen the beginning variation, the 'divorce' variation which are mannequin like and missing parts of the body, and the 'womanizer variation with the tits and lips What the Hell does THAT mean?

[Nobuyuki]

Originally Posted by Tomm Guycot

...and have a SHattered Memories website.

So did Homecoming.

[Tomm Guycot]

Fun fact for anyone who's already seen the UFO ending:

I voice the special guest

[ASandoval]

Originally Posted by Tomm Guycot

Fun fact for anyone who's already seen the UFO ending:

I voice the special guest

I was wondering about that. Very awesome.

So, watching my girlfriend play now (She has done nothing but raved about it, btw) and now something's really got me thinking. Block of spoiler incoming.

So she's wandering around the pet shop, when she stumbles on something I never noticed: Fish. Not dead fish mind you, these fish are swimming! They are enjoying themselves in their somewhat dirty tank. But the mall has been abandoned, probably for some time now based on what happens when you call mall security. There's even a dead rabbit with a gaping hole in him an aisle down. Who the Hell is taking care of these fish?

So then I'm thinking about the rest of the town, right? This Silent Hill seems to be more about Cheryl and her messed up repressed subconscious than it does the town... I never really had any reason to think ANYTHING that was going on at the end had actually happened and was instead just a fictitious scenario made up in her head. Harry walking in on her therapy session kind of reinforces that. But there's weird shit, probably done on purpose just to make you question your reality more. Things like fish swimming idly in their tank in a seemingly abandoned mall, a security guard who interacts with Harry and says he can't see him on the monitors but is still somehow having a conversation with him... I feel like I'm missing something beyond the surface level of the story.

[smacketh]

With the security guard being unable to see Harry, I just figured it was because there wasn't a camera nearby that happened to spot me...but then again I called when I was in the hallway where the number was listed and didn't pay much attention to see if there was a camera or not.

[Willm]

On two of my three playthroughs thus far, the security guard could see Harry.

[le geek]

Just played the underwater car sequence. Well played sir, well played.

[ASandoval]

Originally Posted by Willm

On two of my three playthroughs thus far, the security guard could see Harry.

Clearly, we are being f'ed with. Well played Climax.

[fanboymaster]

Hey, I got this for Christmas, nifty.

[DemoWeasel]

I am stuck in the police car I feel dumb.

[Nyarlathotep]

Get in the driver's seat.

[DemoWeasel]

Oh! I didn't know you could move around in there.

[Eusis]

Originally Posted by Nyarlathotep

Get in the driver's seat.

That isn't the only way out, the passenger seat works too. Wonder if that affects the psyche profile or not.

So, yeah, I got this today, and think I put more time into this than anything other than Demon's Souls (which I opened yesterday so it had an unfair head start).

[DemoWeasel]

Okay, so I just got out of the woods; here are my impressions so far!

I'm really happy with it! I wouldn't exactly call this game "scary"; it's more creepy and intense than anything really. The nightmares don't induce white-knuckle terror like I was expecting but are still really effective at getting your blood pumping. Throwing off monsters is very easy! Also, it's really, really dark (but that was expected anyway) and it drains Wiimote batteries like crazy. I thought it was pretty cool how the color you painted the couple's shirts determined what color shirts their in-game models wear.

Speaking of which, do the colors you use affect your psych profile in any way? Like, does the profile change if you use warm, intense colors as opposed to cooler, less saturated colors? Does the way you color in the picture affect it as well? Like... do you get a different result if you scribble in whatever as opposed to taking your time with carefully selected colors?

[benjibot]

Tomm,

Your game is freaking me out.

[Turnip]

It appears you need to download the Echo app.

[benjibot]

Originally Posted by Turnip

It appears you need to download the Echo app.

I don't. I really, really don't.

[DemoWeasel]

I just finished it.

[Brandon]

I've finished it three times now and it's pretty great. This is the kind of story the movie should've been, rather than the weird grab-bag nonsense that we actually got.

Oh, and now there's a Let's Play.

Watch as he tackles the hardest puzzle in the game.

[Matchstick]

I just finished this and I totally dug it. Excellent work, Tomm. I was convinced that ultimately it was going to boil down to rape and/or incest, but I was taken totally off-guard. Good comments by everybody here, in general, so I don't have much to add.

[le geek]

Giant Bomb Wii Game of the Year

And I'm still nursing my first play thru like a warm, flat beer (I may need to move the Wii into the nerd attic for a spell...)

[taidan]

Bump to say I've been playing this since Sunday, and aside from some of the nitpicks mentioned in this thread, this is one of the smartest games on the wii, in regards to design. It feels like something made for adults, and I appreciate that.

[Dawnswalker]

I finally got a chance to start this today!

Are we sure that the Psych profile tracks everything? Because I'm certain my game thinks I'm an imbecile now, seeing as how I traipsed around lost in the first Nightmare for several minutes before finding the actual entrance to the passage to Levin St.

Also, there seems to be no setting between worthless drunk and teetotaller. Silent Hill is teaching me so much about myself and life!

[le geek]

Just finished it.

The "classics" in the theater lobby are great.

The falling sequence really worked, I was completely creeped out.

I get bits and pieces of how Silent Hill 2 was your favorite. I really should play that one again.

Overall loved it, even if the running sequences could be frustrating at times (not enough to bother me, but my wife always hands the controller over to me for them.)

Great work Tomm, I hope you get a chance to make another! This may be my favorite game on the Wii, edging out Galaxy and Twilight Princess.

[Merus]

So Tomm, does it matter where I preorder it from if I don't live in the UK? Because I'd like to preorder it from the store where it's 10 dollars less and is not EB Games, but I don't know if it matters more if it comes from EB Games or not.

[AJR]

I guess I haven’t been following this thread very well, but are you talking about preorder bonuses or something? Wouldn’t JB Hi-Fi be able to tell you? At least, I assume you're talking about JB Hi-Fi.

I haven't preordered a game in years so just ignore me if I'm wrong.

[gamin]

So I got this game, and proceeded to play and beat it in 2 nights. It was brilliant. It sets up a great atmosphere and never relents. The nightmares filled me with an ever-present dread that made finding the final exit the happiest moments in the game. I liked that even as mazy as some of them were, I could usually intuit the right way on the spot and just keep running like hell. My first death came from not getting how to throw them off, and my only other two were at the school (having to pause to take photographs killed me--I only got 2 out of 3, the parking lot just had too many monsters to survive it) and the Hospital, where I ran an entire loop because I missed the ER door.

Of all the nightmares in the game, Cheryl's apartment was most intense, and what ended up freaking me out the most was walking through the same bedroom from the walls and ceiling, it really felt unsettling and wrong.

After learning Cheryl's age at the school I had it pegged that Harry (estranged from his wife and daughter) was in shock as a result of hearing or seeing something terrible happening to Cheryl and had a car cash wherein he had amnesia. Obviously, I was off, but I like that the game managed to keep up this charade so well. I thought Dahlia was why his wife left him, and figured maybe he got his name legally changed at some point to bury the past to explain Cybil's confusion. This all made sense to me to the point that when I got Cybil's final message with Cheryl's mugshot I thought "Ahah! The last piece of the puzzle!" Obviously that was what had driven Harry to madness--his "perfect daughter" did something terrible! Only to be confused completely when I came up to the lighthouse and found it to be the psychiatrist's.

The twist ending makes a lot more sense, and makes me eager to play again from the perspective I have now. Right now I'm wondering how many of those echo phone messages are of or involving Cheryl, throughout her life.

Oh, and for the record, I got hardass Cybil, pink princess Michelle, punk Dahlia, ambulance driver Lisa, and my monsters all had random geometrical shapes sticking out of their heads and body. I have no idea what any of that really corresponds too, but it seems like the game had a fairly decent understanding of me judging by the final assessment. I found it amusing that it noticed my tendency to look in mirrors (this is true both in video games and in real life).

EDIT: Oh wow, I never knew there were [ SPOILER ] tags

[O..O~]

Has anyone played the ps2 or psp verisons? I can't find reviews of them anywhere. I still haven't got the game but I am interested to see how the other versions stack up

[smacketh]

Originally Posted by O..O~

Has anyone played the ps2 or psp verisons? I can't find reviews of them anywhere. I still haven't got the game but I am interested to see how the other versions stack up

I don't believe those versions are out yet.

[Merus]

Originally Posted by AJR

I guess I haven’t been following this thread very well, but are you talking about preorder bonuses or something? Wouldn’t JB Hi-Fi be able to tell you? At least, I assume you're talking about JB Hi-Fi.

I haven't preordered a game in years so just ignore me if I'm wrong.

No I mean what's best for his figures. Normally when a game comes out I'll just buy it from JB when it's on the shelf, but if it looks better if I preorder it from a specific store I'll do that.